Time, Space and Everything in Between: The Astrophysics Quiz

The field of astrophysics covers some of the biggest questions about the universe. How did it form? What will happen to it? How do solar systems form? What are stars made of? Is time travel possible? Test your knowledge of astrophysics with this quiz.

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Question 1 of 30

The sun is made mostly from what element?

hydrogen

The sun is almost 75 percent hydrogen.

helium

nitrogen

Question 2 of 30

What is the process that "powers" stars?

quantum tunneling

nuclear fission

nuclear fusion

The energy given off by stars comes from the fusion of atoms within the star.

Question 3 of 30

Most stars, when plotted into a graph of color and brightness, fall into a band known as the …

main sequence

The main sequence shows the changes that stars of a given mass undergo throughout their lives.

zenith pattern

Lagrangian point

Question 4 of 30

The final stage for the most massive stars is either a massive explosion known as a supernova or gravitational collapse into a …

black hole

All the mass of a truly massive star can sometimes collapse into a single point of infinite gravity known as a black hole.

nebula

red giant

Question 5 of 30

The Kepler space telescope has found more what than any other telescope?

exoplanets

Kepler has spotted about two-thirds of all the planets outside our solar system that have been discovered so far.

quasars

asteroids

Question 6 of 30

Variances in the sun's magnetic field can cause some areas on the sun's surface to be slightly cooler than the surrounding area. These areas are known as what?

convergent voids

sunspots

Sunspots appear as dark areas on the sun's surface because they're cooler, although they're still well over 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit (4,000 degrees Celsius).

dipolar radiance

Question 7 of 30

What is the radial-velocity method of detecting exoplanets?

measuring the gas composition of a star to determine if an exoplanet is causing the gases to mix

measuring the patterns of gamma rays thrown off of an exoplanet as it rotates

measuring the Doppler shift of light emitted by the parent star as the planet's gravity makes the star "wobble"

A massive exoplanet pulls its parent star back and forth as it revolves around the star. The slight changes in wavelength in the light emitted by the star can be measured.

Question 8 of 30

A planet that does not orbit any star, instead wandering through the galaxy alone, is called what?

a rogue planet

Rogue planets move through the galaxy independent of any solar system.

a templar

a planetar

Question 9 of 30

What is the stellar equivalent of a rogue planet?

white hole

brown dwarf

intergalactic star

Intergalactic stars move through the enormous spaces between galaxies. They may have been dislodged by galaxies colliding or accelerated into intergalactic space by supermassive black holes.

Question 10 of 30

Molecular clouds are regions where interstellar gases are slightly more dense, permitting molecules to form. These massive clouds can also give birth to what?

stars

Molecular clouds are also known as stellar nurseries, since stars are born there.

dark matter

ionized gas

Question 11 of 30

What was the first (and so far only) spacecraft to enter the interstellar medium?

Hubble

Cassini

Voyager I

Voyager I left our solar system and is now traveling through the interstellar medium, the space between solar systems.

Question 12 of 30

What is the most widely accepted theory about the origin of the universe?

the steady state theory

the big bang theory

The big bang theory posits that the entire universe was concentrated into a single point roughly 13.8 billion years ago, and that it expanded rapidly to form what we know as the universe.

the proton cascade theory

Question 13 of 30

The faint glow of radiation permeating the universe, considered a key element of the big bang theory, is also known as the …

thermal identifier

cosmic microwave background

The cosmic microwave background is the oldest light we can see, a remnant of the energy that filled the universe's earliest eras.

photon decoupling

Question 14 of 30

What is the term for the apparent increase in wavelengths of light as the object emitting them and an observer move farther apart?

parsec

blueshift

redshift

Redshift can be the result of actual movement of one object away from another or apparent movement due to the expansion of the universe.

Question 15 of 30

A theoretical "tube" connecting two different points in space-time is called what?

a wormhole

A wormhole could allow rapid travel across vast distances or even time travel.

a warp sphere

hyperspace

Question 16 of 30

The theory that the universe will continue expanding until all energy is evenly distributed throughout the universe is called what?

the Kelvin extremity

the big nothing theory

the heat death of the universe

Continued expansion, leading to the heat death of the universe, is one of the leading theories on the universe's ultimate fate.

Question 17 of 30

Observations of the universe suggest there is a great deal more matter present than what is visible. How do physicists account for the discrepancy?

with nonmatter

with dark matter

Dark matter doesn’t seem to interact with the electromagnetic spectrum in any way, making it effectively invisible. What it actually is and whether it really exists is a matter of great debate and experimentation.

with degenerate matter

Question 18 of 30

The matter in the universe that we can see and interact with (as opposed to dark matter and dark energy) is known as …

baryonic matter

Baryonic matter represents a small percentage of the expected amount of matter in the universe, which is why theories about dark energy and dark matter are so important.

antimatter

ionic matter

Question 19 of 30

When a star first forms, it is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that may eventually form planets. What is the disk called?

an event horizon

a stellar cluster

a protoplanetary disk

A protoplanetary disk can coalesce into planets orbiting the star.

Question 20 of 30

The flow of high-energy particles from a star, pushed by the heat of the star's corona, is known as what?

the ionic breeze

the stellar wind

The stellar wind plays a prominent role in star system creation.

the Oort cloud

Question 21 of 30

What kind of star will the sun become in the final stages of its life?

a brown dwarf

a red giant

The sun will expand and become an enormous red giant before collapsing into a white dwarf.

a blue hole

Question 22 of 30

What is at the center of most (possibly all) galaxies?

a megagiant star

a supermassive black hole

Most galaxies seem to revolve around a supermassive black hole.

a superluminal ejection point

Question 23 of 30

What is the event horizon of a black hole?

the point beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape the black hole's gravity

A black hole has infinite gravity — get close enough, and nothing can escape its pull.

the point at which time becomes disconnected from space due to proximity to a black hole

the hypothesized "other side" of a black hole

Question 24 of 30

What is the name of the invisible, radio wave-emitting object at the center of our galaxy that astronomers suspect is a supermassive black hole?

Cygnus V

Sagittarius A

Stars passing in front of Sagittarius A have allowed physicists to estimate the object's mass at more than 4 million times that of the sun.

KPL102101

Question 25 of 30

Analyzing the spectra of the light being emitted by a star allows astronomers to determine what?

how far away it is

the chemical elements that make up the star, and therefore its temperature and density

Spectral analysis shows astronomers the relative quantities of various chemical elements in the star.

the age of the star

Question 26 of 30

In the Morgan–Keenan classification system for stars, the sun is classified G2V. What do the G and the 2 indicate?

the type of star it will eventually become

the sun's distance from its first planet

the temperature of the sun

Stars are classified by their hotness, first on a scale that goes O, B, A, F, G, K and M, then by numbers from zero to 9. The final letter, V, indicates that our sun is a main sequence star.

Question 27 of 30

The two primary classifications of galaxies are elliptical and what else?

cloud

ring

spiral

Spiral galaxies can either have a pinwheel shape or, more commonly, a central bar with spiral arms.

Question 28 of 30

What accounts for most galaxies with odd or unusual shapes?

extradimensional gravity leakage

interactions with other galaxies

When galaxies collide, the result can be strange-looking galaxies with almost no shape (just formless clouds of stars) or really distinctive shapes (like a doughnut-shaped galaxy).

dark energy

Question 29 of 30

Which part of a star is hotter, the core or the surface?

core

The core is significantly hotter, since a constant nuclear fusion reaction is blasting out gamma radiation.

surface

Question 30 of 30

What is the term for a system of two stars revolving around each other?

Tatooine

a twin system

a binary star

Binary stars can develop into strange and exotic systems, such as systems where one star draws energy and matter from the other.